‘Not to Disappear’ By Daughter Review: A Stronger Side To Their Indie Sound

Not to Disappear, Daughter’s second full-length album, delivers some of the same themes that the band’s 2013 album If You Leave did but grapples with them on a larger scale. The London-based lead Elena Tonra and band members Igor Haefeli and Remi Aguilella bring a balanced and supple sound to most songs on the album.

‘Not to Disappear’ By Daughter Review

Not to Disappear deals with intimate subjects like anxiety, isolation, loneliness, and unrequited love and adds a layer of universality that was lacking in Daughter’s previous album and EPs. The familiar melancholy lyrics and sound dominate some of the more prominent songs on the album. In “New Ways,” for example, the continuous repetition of the same word phrases produces a tension that reinforces and in fact reiterates the album’s title.

“Doing the Right Thing,” which was released as a promotional single for the album, hints at the hardships someone suffering from dementia experiences. The song feels both tangible and spectral, full of minute moments of silence and echoes that extend the anxiety of the situation.

Songs like “Alone / With You” and “No Care,” on the other hand, break away from the ethereal feel of the rest of the album. They have the distinct atmosphere of indignation and youthful angst, which infuses both the sound and the lyrics with odd frenzy.

Not to Disappear may place Daughter in a commercial realm closer to that of the xx, for example, but a more important feature of their growth remains the newly developed universality of their lyrical identity. With their latest album, Daughter show a different, stronger and more determined side to their characteristic indie sound while at the same time remaining true to their style.

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